Dangal is a biographical sports drama film, which is based on the life of Mahavir Singh Phogat, who taught wrestling to his daughters Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari, who went on to win at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Geeta won the gold medal ( 55 kg) and her sister Babita Kumari won the silver ( 51 kg) .
DANGAL is a terrific movie on wrestling, it's remarkably audacious in its ability to keep the key bases associated with a sports flick covered while tingling some twist enough to make it interesting for the entire 2hrs 41 minute duration, it's also a wonderful film about family which probably portrays the best father daughter relationship on screen seen in recent times and last but not the least, lead by Aamir Khan - DANGAL is one of the most powerful acting showcase seen in recent years that is likely to grab multiple award nominations.
The uplifting story that 'dhobi pachaad's ( read beats convincingly) the prejudice against women who step into the 'man's' macho world of 'pehelwans' by throwing their 'belans', bangles, bindis and fear is certainly a story that needs to be told. The way the writers have arranged the sequences making it thoroughly absorbing right from the word go is commendable. Continuous dose of controlled drama, tongue n cheek humour and crowd pleasing moments are thrown in and occasional layers are added as and when required making it the most convincingly written script in recent times.
The only two similarities between Salman Khan's SULTAN and Aamir Khan's DANGAL is the state of Haryana and khusti ( wrestling) within minutes as we see the first fight DANGAL starts moving on its own and never looks back. Highlighting the prejudice against the women, Mahavir ( Aamir Khan) former Indian national champion wrestler who missed his chance to bring the gold medal to India for a 'naukri' and assured life keeps on becoming father of four 'chokris' ( girl) not for the fondness for children but in the obsession to have a boy. Mahavir believes that only men are fit to be wrestlers and fighters in life.
Having almost lost hope to see his 'male' child fulfill his dreams of bringing the gold medal in wrestling to India, one day an incident involving a brawl between his teenage daughters Geeta ( Fatima Sana Shaikh) and Babita ( Sanya Malhotra) with village boys introduces the other side of a girl child to Mahavir which is normally not associated or familiar with female folks and that changes the life of Mahavir and his daughters. 'Kyu mara who baad mein, pehle yeh bata kaise maara' ( why you beat those boys later, first tell me how you fought with them) he says to Geeta and Babita. The girls enact the scene and Mahavir sees a light and a hope is born, 'pehalwani inke khoon mein hai' he gleefully says and the journey of India's first common wealth female gold medalist in wrestling begins with some remarkable detailing like the training and the wrestling matches that are so real that's it's hard to believe that we are actually watching it on screen.
